This is my first time posting a trip report so excuse the crudity if there happens to be any. Anyway on May 20, 2003 me and my friend had a flight out of MKE to JAX on Northwest via DTW for our vacation down in Florida. Being much closer to ORD than MKE we decided to go with the cheaper alternative plus we get to fly on Northwest which is a first for both of us. The flight left MKE at 0720 on the 20th and was a 757(N505US). We were seated in the second to the last row, which is not a bad thing because you get to see the flaps and vortex coming off the wing upon landing. It was a very short flight to DTW, I believe only 40 minutes flying time. It was very overcast coming into DTW so we had the vortex coming off the wing. When we touched down in DTW I was all hyped up for my first flight on a dc9 down to JAX. As we taxied to the gate I got to see Northwest new paint job on there planes on a dc9 and on a 319. As we deplaned we decided since we had about an hour to go check out the new World Gateway terminal. It is probiually the nicest terminal I've been to besides DEN. Finally it was time to board our dc9-30 for our flight to JAX. We were seated in the rear of the plane again, but we managed it ok. One thing I wasn't prepared for was how loud the dc9 would be even inside the cabin. Its a good thing I brought my earplugs with. It was a very smooth and fun flight and landing in JAX was a typical Florida landing. Muggy, humid and overcast. We decided to let the other passengers deplane first so we could get a few pics of the cockpit. The flight crew was nice enough to let us take those pictures. we talked with the first officer for a bit and he said that Northwest is planning to replace the dc9 with regional jets(bummer).

Five days later we went back to JAX to go home. Vacation was over, but not until we landed in MKE. We were on a dc9-50 from JAX-DTW. This flight was nice and smooth except for 1 thing, we had 2 unaccompanied kids behind us who could not of been over 10 years old. The whole flight was them yelling and banging on the back of our seats. They could see we were getting annoyed and still continued to do it. On approach to DTW we were parallel with a northwest 757 landing on the runway parallel to ours. We were even all the way down to the runway and it was just neat to see a plane landing that close to another one like that for me. When we pulled up to the gate in DTW we were again the last ones off and asked the flight crew for some pictures. They were very nice and the F/A took a picture of me in the F/o seat, then one of my friend. After that a mechanic walked on and started talking to the Captain. I knew that was not a good thing since it was the same aircraft that would be taking us back to MKE. After a While of waiting at the gate and numerous announcements by the C.S.R. they said our plane was down, but our new plane was right next door. This is where it all goes down hill. The C.S.R. failed to notice that this was not a series 50 dc9 it was a series 30. So it was a lot of fighting about whose sitting in whose seat and who has a seat that does not even exist. In the end we got off and in return got told to take any open seat because they wanted to get out without to much of a delay. It was a ok flight from DTW to MKE even though we were split up and not even in our seat assignments. When we finally arrived in MKE we were told that our bags did not make it. Apparently when the plane that was supposed to take us back broke they did not take our bags and transfer them to the new plane. The C.S.R. told us that they might be on the next one coming in an hour. She gave us vouchers for a meal and when the next flight arrived still no bags. We filled out the approbate paperwork and our bags showed up 2 days later. All in all it was a fun trip and I got to fly on the dc9s that I have always wanted to do. The flight crews on the flights were nice enough to let us get those pics and I thank them for that. I hope to fly Northwest next year when I go back to Florida, but hopefully the time they wont lose my bags. Being a furloughed ramper for UAL I understand that it happens.

Like I stated before this is my first time writing a trip report so don't jump down my throat if I did not do a good job or if I left stuff out. Hope you enjoyed it.